Sunday, September 30, 2012

Just a quick update ... we've moved at long last! We still have not got any Internet, we live in the middle of nowhere, kinda out of civilisation but we couldn't be happier! Fresh air, plenty of land to walk around and is surrounding by stunning view all around us.

All is well here, soon I've got the Internet connection, I will do a big update.

Sing in our far field, background is the house.

Sonic standing on top of the hill looking down the valley, this piece of land is from our garden, our gate way to go walkies

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Right, lots of news ... Sonic's first agility début on the weekend, pups-date, housing ... etc all have to wait. We are running out of time packing. Removal Van will be here less than 24 hours but we never forget to have fun with our shelties :) Not sure Sizzle really like to be packed but soon they will be living in the Shelties Wonderland! We haven't got the Internet fix at the new house yet and it is in the middle of nowhere so how long will it takes with this terrible weather (great!), only God knows. We will be off line from any minute now, hopefully the next time I post, we will have a BIG update on everything.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Little did I know, Sonic is now 18 months old and he can officially compete at the Kennel Club Open show! Oops! I have entered a weekend show with him, so we are going to have some fun. He, is not ready yet. We have missed out a lot on out training. We stop going to our weekly Club due to our trainer on maternity leave; then we have to rest him on and off for 6-8 weeks due to his back leg problem, so no practice in the garden either! We only just started to "do" agility again last weekend after a complete 8 weeks off of doing nothing! We had lots of fun last Sunday at an UKA show, we made a lot of silly mistake but he's only a baby. I am really pleased with his speed and most of all, the enthusiasm! I think we will have a lot of fun. I am so looking forward to it!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Sipzie's puppies are 3.5 weeks now, goodness me, where did all the times gone? These two little rascal plus Flint bring some sunshine to us in the middle of packing! Every now and then, we take a break and had a little play with them. Fat boy Chestnut is quite steady on his feet now, apart from "hoping" on the wobble board and roll off then dash into the kitty play tunnel, he is alright. I just can't stop laughing at his little antics. Luckily, little princess Rona is the sensible one. She is very cheeky in herself. She is always watching and waiting to see where her brother is, then without him noticing it, she will sneak from behind and pounce on him! Then, the two of them mouthing each other. Just too cute! Am I going to finish packing in time? I know Colin keeps reminding me: Can you please pack more! Mmm ... sorry Colin, these puppies are just too cute! I can't pack right now!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

This week's tricky T-day star is little S-Flint! I have received emails and text messages asking me about this little guy; sorry I have not introduce him ... this is a Sing's son by a lovely little tri girl called Wilma, I am sure you now know where his name comes from :)

I went to visit him and his sister Tease when they were 5 weeks old, I fell in love with both of them. They have superb temperament to die for, very outgoing, forward and playful. I came home and struggle with my feeling about having another puppy ... as I have one on her way here in October. I've been through having raised two puppies at once twice and I was struggling. I swear I never go down that road again but what do I have now?

Sing is nearly 11 and Sipzie's will be probably his last litter. I've always wanted a Sing's tri colour son. I was secretly praying that Sipzie will give me a tri colour boy but she decided not! One week after Sipzie's pups were born. My feeling towards S-Flint grew stronger. I woke up that Sunday morning and said to Colin: I'll HAVE him! (I've been discussing this "puppies thing" with him and he is always supportive and he knew what will make me happy) SO, S-Flint came to join his daddy and half brother Sonic at 7 weeks old puppy.

We can't find a S name that suits him. His posh name is Sings Summer Wonder, we tried calling him "Summer" or "Secret" but they are just not him. As his mama is call Wilma, we tried to go down the Flintstone characters like Dino (SDino?), BamBam (SBam?), Fred (SFred?), nothing that we like! We kinda have in mind that we will call him Flint but that missing a S and he is response well to Flint, so the name Flint stays. We are calling him Flint but to make him more like The KNIGHTs Shelties family, it will be written as S-Flint!

S-Flint is very different from Sonic, in fact, they are nothing like each other at all. You would not believe they are both Sing's sons. Personality wise, Flint is more like Sing, very outgoing, bald, friendly, loves people and loves other dogs. Taking him out socialisation is never a problem. He plays with any size dogs in the Common he met, he ran up to people to say hello to them; where Sonic is very reserved. He is clever but not as a quick learner as Sonic. Sonic is more like Sing when comes to learn something. He picks a new tricks like he already knew it where Flint takes a while to learn a new behaviour. Although Flint is very playful, he loves his tuggy but he never like a ball. What? A Sing's son that not liking a ball? Oh dear!

I tried to teach him to play with a ball but he never really taken to it, to be honest, I was very disappointed! I was away on the weekend with Sonic, Sizzle and Saturn to do a bit of agility and Colin has been secretly practising playing ball with him to impress me. What a wonderful husband he is! He really know how to please me and wants to make me happy. Sometimes, I think I over shadow my lovely husband, I am really impress how he remembered what we did in Flyball. When he showed me how he taught Flint to retrieve a ball and bring it back by running away ...

and this is the result:

and this is a bonus little clip of Flint, I call it "puppy abuse", hahaha ... we were busy packing for moving and he wants to join in and pick up a few tape and this and that, we got him on film while he sat on a piece of tape and is chasing his own tail, so funny! Then, he stood on another piece of tape ... crazy puppy!

BTW, he is one very cheeky and naughty puppy that he super bitey! He plays rough, thank God he is tiny. He is very pushy and likes to bully his big brother Sonic. Sonic is such a tolerate dog, that makes me wants to protect him from this little rascal!

Monday, September 17, 2012

I've entered Southam show, thinking that we will be IN our new place then because the venue is only 3 miles from our new house. Thank God I've entered as I was getting rather worried that Sonic has not been measured. He is well over 15 months as I haven't been going to any show, and I've trying to contact some measurers to see if they will do a private measuring outside the show but everyone is too busy at the show season. I have no choice but to drive up to Rugby on Saturday morning to have Sonic measured there.

I have been so relax this year, no early morning and I actually struggled to wake up at 4am! It took me 2 hours to get there. I wasn't too worry to miss Sizzle's run but I wanted to get Sonic measured. He got measured before the show starts which is brilliant, so I can just concentrate with Sizzle later.

I've entered 3 classes with Sizzle and 1 class with Saturn. I've done 2 classes within the first hour and have to wait 6 hours before our last class! That was a hell of waiting! Oh well, with no training and practice, we had been eliminated in all classes. They weren't particularly hard courses, Sizzle just took extra jumps in every class. Hahaha ... also, in the last class, he pop out at 10th pole, I put him back again, and he still pop out 10th pole, so I pull him out, thinking his back must have been "gone" again!

Saturn ran well but very unfortunately drop a bar!

No videos, Colin was at home puppy-sitting and I hate to ask people to film me.

Although I entered both days at Southam but I decided to do UKA on Sunday, so that Sonic can do a bit of agility. I found a multi-dogs friendly B&B in Coveney, the owner Doris also does agility with her dogs, that's just perfect. She is such a lovely lady, we get on very well. I highly recommend this B&B, they only charge £3/dog, the place is very clean and quiet. There is a big field across the B&B for the dogs to run around. Saturn, Sizzle and Sonic are great travellers and they made travelling so much easier with them.

We went to UKA @ Littleport on Sunday. I entered 5 NFC classes with Sonic and he worked very well, I am so pleased with him. We made a lot of mistakes but that give me some ideas what we can do and what we need to practice. Poor boy has not been to any training since June and no practice in the garden either. I was real chuffed with his see-saw performance. He has not done any other see-saw apart from home. He has no hesitation and ran all the way till the end and stop and wait for me to release. I have never have a dog that has such a brilliant see-saw and I am holding my breath and determine to keep him this way. His running Dog Walk and A Frame were faultless, he even managed weaves! He is not a great jumper, he is too busy barking at me if I am behind and would not go on! Our main problem is if the jump ahead is in an angle, he will not take it, he either run around like a loose canon or bark at me in frustration. Also, the flick flack, rear acorss is not going so well either! There are too many things need to practice! In the last class, it was Beginners Steeplechase 2, it's a lovely course running up and down and for once, Sonic ran clear and fast :)

this is our first class of the day, Beinngers S/Chase 1, there is this kind gentleman to film us, the only one all weekend :) (as you can see he is one barky loose canon!)

Sizzle had 3 classes and he did all the weaves correctly! WooHoo! I so wanted to get him into Champ Steeplechase guess what? He drop a bar :( but he won the Power & Speed :)

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Sipzie's puppies are getting more active now. Today, they got to let out of the puppy pen and exploring the lounge! Little girl Rona is far more active than her fat brother :), she is trying hard to crawl around the whole lounge, big brother Sonic loves his baby sister and baby brother, he is so gentle and nurse them. It's just beautiful to watch. If Sonic is a girl, I am sure he will be the best mama!

Fat boy is seriously FAT, hahaha ... he is slow maturing, I think he needs to exercise more! He only just open his eyes 2 days ago, 3 full days later than Rona. He is very cute though, fat and clumsy and wobbly but he is the fastest than crawl up to the milk bar!

Mama Sipzie is doing a great job keeping her babies clean. Her favourite is to try to hide her puppies. Each morning, I woke up to find the two puppies buried underneath the blanket!

I just loved this picture, Sipzie's expression is priceless. She is very happy to bury her puppies!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

So, this last week, I keep improving on the "stacking" trick with the boys, Sing and Sonic seems to be the easiest to teach this trick but not Saturn and Sizzle. How weird! Saturn and Sizzle have very strong "hold" behaviour but I just can't get them to perform this trick naturally like Sing and Sonic did.

So, both Sing and Sonic progress to stacking 3 containers now, even Saturn beginning to get the idea and is able to stack 3 containers but he has his own unique way of doing it, the "Saturn's way"! As Saturn has the strongest "hold" in The KNIGHTs Shelties household, to get him to drop the container proof to be the most difficult task! After some trial and error, we came up with me asking Saturn for his paw (hand shake), he will then drop the container. How cute is that? I was trying to wean him off that but no success yet. I don't really mind the "Saturn's way", I think he is really cute. What do you think?

Monday, September 10, 2012

Sipzie's pups are 2 weeks old. We had a rough week, daily trip to the vet since Wednesday, first, the little girl got eye infection (Mmm ... she hasn't even open her eye at Day 10!), she was treated immediately and it soon clear up. Then, Sipzie got poorly and fat boy got "flying" diarrhoea! (I called it "flying" diarrhoea because everytime I pick him up, he spray his diarrhoea all over me. FUN! YUK!). They all been to the vet and treated with antibiotic injection and 5 days course of antibiotic after that. I am happy to report, they are all well now.

Little girl Rona, because her left eye was poorly, so the vet has to force open with scissor to be able to treat it properly; she was rather funny looking with one eye open and one eye close for 3 days. I feel like putting a patch so she looks like a pirate, LOL! Anyway, the other "close" eye showed a crack yesterday morning, by evening, it was open and this morning, we have TWO bright eyes!

Fat boy Chestnut is a late blossomer, although he is very active and strong, he decided to keep his eyes shut for a little longer :) He is such a wriggly worm. It's so hard to hold him still and clean him while he is awake. I can't believe how strong he is. He is seriously FAT!

Fat Boy seems to like to lie on his back a lot! Probably too fat! Hahaha ...

just that you know, he also lie like this :)

Both pups are about 50g different in weight but if you look at the pictures, Rona is so petite and Chestnut is macho! They start crawling around quite a lot now, their head is more steady while lifted and they like to chew/bite their own feet! Hahaha ... so cute!

I think before long, these two will be on their feet and all the fun begin. WooHoo! Can't wait! Mmm ... hopefully the weather stays dry for a few more weeks, so they can go and chase some sheep ...